Post by Dragon_of_Dojima on Aug 16, 2018 13:56:29 GMT -6

Playing the updated backer demo, my response to it was still very positive. There's writing now, and it's fine. Ajna is a bit goofier than I expected in terms of personality. Gameplay feels faster overall, but I've noticed that you can't hang with the axe for very long anymore. The addition of walking, pausing mid-fight, the map, and the head space were nice too. My favs were Dhar, Nuna, Bhaozai, and Zebei.(Never leave home without Zebei) I didn't try Latigo, but maybe next time.

I don't have much to say, they're meeting my expectations so far. One thing that was unexpected about the final boss of this version of the demo was that it felt like a puzzle as well and incorporated some of the Metroidvania aspects to it. I definitely want more fights like that, especially when they consider the surroundings.(Knocking enemies off a cliff, or fire monsters into water or vice versa, switches, etc.)

I know Vasco is now Latigo, but there's also George (who I immediately noticed was gone), Narssus, Toko, Kaldi, Hassam, Tatanka and Kogi. Maybe this info is buried deep in an update somewhere, but I miss some of those. And I didn't know about some of the redesigns, either.

Oh well, that...sucks. I was already short on characters I was interested in, but maybe I'll change my mind once I play them. There's always the backer incarnations and guest characters...but I think it's definitely weird that they showed NPCs with playables, indistinctively?

Post by crocodile on Aug 24, 2018 0:22:55 GMT -6

Interviews from Gamescom. Not a ton of new info but a nice look at the newest version of the game:

purifyweirdshard You had to pay attention (maybe more than was fair to be expected) but they weren't hiding that some of these Incarnations were playable and some weren't. They said that coming up with all these Incarnations at the time of the campaign wasn't the plan initially and was done to hype up the campaign to encourage people to donate. So I figure they probably weren't 100% sure who would be playable and who wouldn't (or sure for some Incarnations and not sure for others) at that point. It should be noted that many of the incarnations shown that aren't playable still have a good chance to end up as NPCs in Ajna's Inner Realm. For example, Vasco is set to still appear in the game but as an NPC. They confirmed that I think a few weeks after the Latigo reveal.

Post by purifyweirdshard on Aug 24, 2018 0:37:25 GMT -6

Yeah, I caught all of that myself after reading the skullheart forums and those linked posts.

It makes sense, but seems to have been clarified later in forum posts rather than the updates themselves pointing that out from what I remember. Or excitement and hopes could have gotten the best of me and I read right over it. I likely also immediately equated incarnations to einherjar. Oh well, it's fine, I imagine I'll be able to find at least 4 characters I want to play.

Post by Dragon_of_Dojima on Sept 12, 2018 14:52:50 GMT -6

Even though I didn't need to, I played that Backer update demo again when I attended to PAX West this year. I even met Angel from 505, he was a cool guy. Apparently Iga was at PAX as well, but I didn't have time/didn't know where he was at the time to meet him.

I think I was doing really really well that time playing. Note, I had only played the second backer demo(third demo overall) one time before then. I was styling, getting high combos, and even beat one of the secret bosses that I never could win against when I was at home. Fun times at PAX and more fun times with this game.

Post by crocodile on Oct 3, 2018 5:20:26 GMT -6

Thorani was my favorite of the Incarnations revealed and I'm glad to finally learn more about her. She excels at healing and meter management but does so in a super interesting way and looks fabulous while doing it. Her animations look super sweet as well (though that's par for the course for this game LOL).

Post by purifyweirdshard on Jan 30, 2019 13:50:48 GMT -6

I find it interesting and somewhat odd how very similar Bloodstained and Indivisible's situations are, yet the near 180 vocal backers have about them.

Both are 2015 Kickstarter games delayed into TBA 2019, published by 505 Games, with similar releases of information. In Indivisible's case, the developers even advised their fans not to post questions and messages to them on the crowdfunding page because they weren't going to be looking there. Backers were fine with that, and the delay, and the release of information. They've only had 4 official updates since July.

The difference, the main difference I believe, is just the scale of attention and excitement. What Bloodstained is doing isn't wrong, or even unique, and obviously and in actuality doing much better with comment section interaction and more regular updates. The difference is in us. And no, I'm not talking about Linux/Mac, that's a different situation entirely. This is more about how any and all response I see to this game on social media is jeering about the release date.

Post by gunlord500 on Jan 30, 2019 22:24:38 GMT -6

I find it interesting and somewhat odd how very similar Bloodstained and Indivisible's situations are, yet the near 180 vocal backers have about them.

Both are 2015 Kickstarter games delayed into TBA 2019, published by 505 Games, with similar releases of information. In Indivisible's case, the developers even advised their fans not to post questions and messages to them on the crowdfunding page because they weren't going to be looking there. Backers were fine with that, and the delay, and the release of information. They've only had 4 official updates since July.

The difference, the main difference I believe, is just the scale of attention and excitement. What Bloodstained is doing isn't wrong, or even unique, and obviously and in actuality doing much better with comment section interaction and more regular updates. The difference is in us. And no, I'm not talking about Linux/Mac, that's a different situation entirely. This is more about how any and all response I see to this game on social media is jeering about the release date.

Well, Indivisible was made by folks who put out a beloved fighting game (Skullgirls) relatively recently, while Bloodstained was (bluntly stated) more similar to Mighty No. 9--created by someone who put out beloved games in the past, but only under the ambit of a reviled company (Konami in IGA's case, Capcom in Inafune's). The amount of similarity Bloodstained has to Mighty No. 9 makes people more suspicious of it than Indivisible. Let's just do our best to prove such a glum comparison wrong...

Post by purifyweirdshard on Jan 31, 2019 9:11:48 GMT -6

I find it interesting and somewhat odd how very similar Bloodstained and Indivisible's situations are, yet the near 180 vocal backers have about them.

Both are 2015 Kickstarter games delayed into TBA 2019, published by 505 Games, with similar releases of information. In Indivisible's case, the developers even advised their fans not to post questions and messages to them on the crowdfunding page because they weren't going to be looking there. Backers were fine with that, and the delay, and the release of information. They've only had 4 official updates since July.

The difference, the main difference I believe, is just the scale of attention and excitement. What Bloodstained is doing isn't wrong, or even unique, and obviously and in actuality doing much better with comment section interaction and more regular updates. The difference is in us. And no, I'm not talking about Linux/Mac, that's a different situation entirely. This is more about how any and all response I see to this game on social media is jeering about the release date.

Well, Indivisible was made by folks who put out a beloved fighting game (Skullgirls) relatively recently, while Bloodstained was (bluntly stated) more similar to Mighty No. 9--created by someone who put out beloved games in the past, but only under the ambit of a reviled company (Konami in IGA's case, Capcom in Inafune's). The amount of similarity Bloodstained has to Mighty No. 9 makes people more suspicious of it than Indivisible. Let's just do our best to prove such a glum comparison wrong...

sigh, well I'm calling it that today's update will be the beginning of the end of the straggling concerns of "jsdakfjsl;d mighty number 9".

Post by Dragon_of_Dojima on Jan 31, 2019 20:28:58 GMT -6

Indivisible should be more than straight as far as public perception. Unfortunately, most keep forgetting it exists due to actually taking the time to work on and refine the game rather than spamming social media. SHOCKING.Not to mention, from the word go it already had a demo and was already pretty well received. Then they go on to patch the first demo and then make two other demos, one available to the public and then patching both. None of which was all that necessary, but they did it anyway. The fact that more people don't know about, like, or respect Lab Zero is kind of sad. Aside from Mike Z's blunt nature, everything is solid across the board. They even already have a good track record with crowdfunding.

As far as Bloodstained and MN9? I still think Bloodstained is doing alright as there are far more updates for it than MN9 did. The fact that the only points of controversy are graphical quality and cancelled ports is a better sign than you think. Mighty No. 9 still has quite a few ports that have yet to come out at all, with no news on them. No official cancellations.

Graphics(while not a concern for me in the slightest) can either be improved through updates or improved by fans in the worst case scenario. Post launch updates have been all but confirmed. Why stop with MN9 though? Freedom Planet had three major expansions funded with only one of them coming out and the other two basically cancelled. Shovel Knight favors a bit better by staggering all of its content for later, but I'm sure people were a bit miffed that this would happen in the beginning. What about Star Citizen that's been delayed more times than anything mentioned, is still taking funds, and had a disastrous demo. Not everything goes according to plan, but just because there are setbacks doesn't mean it's a disaster.

I fully expected Bloodstained to be released by latest 2020 anyway. This sort of game needs a lot of polish and the scope that we all helped fund made things a lot more difficult in that regard. I hope for the best with both Bloodstained and Indivisible.(I'm still mad about Freedom Planet though, even if I enjoy the game and look forward to the sequel....which won't have anything to do with the promised expansions to the original)

Post by crocodile on Feb 22, 2019 15:51:36 GMT -6

I find it interesting and somewhat odd how very similar Bloodstained and Indivisible's situations are, yet the near 180 vocal backers have about them.

Both are 2015 Kickstarter games delayed into TBA 2019, published by 505 Games, with similar releases of information. In Indivisible's case, the developers even advised their fans not to post questions and messages to them on the crowdfunding page because they weren't going to be looking there. Backers were fine with that, and the delay, and the release of information. They've only had 4 official updates since July.

The difference, the main difference I believe, is just the scale of attention and excitement. What Bloodstained is doing isn't wrong, or even unique, and obviously and in actuality doing much better with comment section interaction and more regular updates. The difference is in us. And no, I'm not talking about Linux/Mac, that's a different situation entirely. This is more about how any and all response I see to this game on social media is jeering about the release date.

In addition to "more total attention will bring more negative attention" as you've pointed out, I think two big issues regarding the difference in situations is that

A) Until the recent Nintendo Direct I'd say almost all Bloodstained news since the beta demo (which was received well to be fair) had been bad news (Mac/Linux cancellations without refunds) or could be perceived as bad even if it wasn't ("wait why do they need Wayforward to jump in at the end, are they struggling?"). Little bits of bad news building up over months, even if none of it is catastrophic, is going to fray nerves and frustrate people fairly or unfairly.

B) There are still residual concerns and frustrations with the visuals of Bloodstained that never existed with Indivisible. The later looked great from day one and has only improved since then. Putting aside the people who are still frustrated that Bloodstained is 2.5D instead of 2D (which IS a big sour point still), the Bloodstained devs have had to exert a LOT of effort to improve the visuals over the years. That's good on the devs but I also think reveals that large portions of the backer base/people following the project weren't happy with how the game was looking and that base discontent I think will lead to people being easily frustrated as well. Indivisible never looked bad so there was never any degree of impatience to see how it is improving (and it has improved quite a lot since the start). Bloodstained has often been critiqued for its visuals so the fact that it took us over 6 months to see some improvement from the beta demo probably got some people bothered.

Aztec: I don’t visit the Discord but I want to ask if we have any confirmation about the Ayami Kojima box art and the backer exclusive slip cover coming with my physical game day and date or is that coming also later? I realize the design is secret but when?May 24, 2019 17:34:35 GMT -6

Aztec: Also we’re supposed to get another update next Thursday, yes?May 24, 2019 17:35:04 GMT -6

purifyweirdshard: The Discord has been a mad house since yesterday, with random folks giving incorrect answers to things, so I'll just tell you here: the slipcase yes, but the Kojima stuff no.May 24, 2019 17:48:12 GMT -6

purifyweirdshard: It's been a while since I heard that specifically asked about and its answer so I'm not 100% sure on the slipcase, but definitely the Kojima art is in a later shipment with the other rewards.May 24, 2019 17:48:38 GMT -6

Galamoth: Though we are still getting another update next Thursday, right?May 24, 2019 19:32:12 GMT -6

Arsenical: *drinks * the game i have been waiting for such a long time is only a few weeks away from me. i am so excited. im sure other peoples here share that excitement so lets read the new threads. . . . . . . oh.May 24, 2019 21:14:53 GMT -6

Arsenical: meh! who cares! i will still enjoy the shiz out of this game and my name will be on the credits. not only that but now i will be able to enjoy full content even if i lose my backer edition so yeah either way i win. *drinks more *May 24, 2019 21:19:43 GMT -6

Arsenical: but am i the only one who thinks that the idea of the steelcases was terrible? why get 3rd party items involved in your project? people is greedy and will whine about it if they dont get it for free! or did i miss something here?May 24, 2019 21:22:37 GMT -6

roguedragon05: Does anyone know if Bloodstained will be at E3 at all this year?May 24, 2019 21:58:44 GMT -6

Aztec: Thanks @purifyweirdshard for the answers. I’m bummed about no Kojima art. That would’ve made for some excellent PR before the game came out. I wish they could show it off even if they physical prints were shipping later but oh wellMay 24, 2019 23:57:01 GMT -6